John Bevere - You Can't Have Astounding Wisdom without THIS
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If you look at the Bible, it says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning; it's the starting place of wisdom and knowledge. Now, why is that important? Because the Bible says getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do. The Bible also says, "Embrace wisdom and she will make you great." Can you listen to that word again? God says wisdom will make you great. Now let's go back to the fact that the fear of the Lord is the starting place; it's the beginning of wisdom. All right, that word is significant because, in the first verse of the Bible, this Hebrew word is used: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth." All right?
Now it's the starting place; it's the beginning. It's the key that gets you into the door. And you know what's interesting? Isaiah 33:6 says that God has all of His wisdom and knowledge in a storehouse, and the key to that storehouse is the fear of the Lord. But it goes a little further than just the starting place, because we are told in Proverbs 14:27 that the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares or traps of death.
Now, there are two significant words here: it's a fountain, and it also turns us away from the traps of death. Let's talk about fountain. The actual Hebrew word for fountain means this: it means it's a continual flow. So not only is the fear of the Lord the starting place of wisdom, it is the continual flow of wisdom that will deliver us from the traps of death. Now, every hunter knows you need two things for a good trap: number one, it's got to be hidden, and number two, it's got to be baited. So that tells me that the traps of death and life are hidden and baited.
Now, baited will draw you to it; hidden will keep you from recognizing that it's a trap. Well, the fear of the Lord is the fountain; it's the continual flow of wisdom that protects you from that. Oh my goodness! In fact, in Proverbs 15:33, it says the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. So let's put all of that together: the fear of the Lord is the continual instructive flow of wisdom that will protect you from the traps of death.
Who's the example that I'd like to use? I'm going to use a guy who had no covenant with God at all. He was a king, and his name was Abimelech. Abimelech was deceived; there was a trap set for him. He was deceived by Abraham when Abraham said, "Sarah is my sister." So Abimelech brought Sarah into his harem. That night, or a few nights later, God gave Abimelech a dream, and He said, "You are a dead man because the woman you have in your harem is the wife of another man." Abimelech responded, "I didn't know! I didn't know!" And God said, "I know you didn't know, and that's why I kept you from committing adultery with her."
So this man, as you can see by the way he responds to God, has a holy fear of God, even though he's not in covenant with Him. And God says that fear of God was the flow of wisdom that protected you from the trap that was even set by Abraham. Now this is what I've got to ask: how can you have somebody who's been attending church for 20 years, listening to the word of God, and yet ends up in bed with another man's wife? There's no other way to describe it; it's not rocket science. He lacks the fear of God; therefore, he doesn't have the continual flow of the instruction of wisdom that is protecting him from the traps of death. Because adultery, as is so clear in the Book of Proverbs, is a trap of death. Listen, one of the greatest benefits of the holy fear of God is that it gives you a continual flow of wisdom.
One of the greatest blessings of the fear of the Lord is that it is the starting place of wisdom, and it is the continual flow of God's wisdom. We need the wisdom of God to navigate this very perverse and wicked world. I really hope you enjoyed that video, and here's the really cool news: I have 42 other videos that correspond with each of the 42 chapters in the brand new book, The Awe of God. Why did I do this? Because I want to see the core concepts go deep into your heart so that your life is transformed. So go to one of your favorite outlets, whether it's Amazon, Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, or JohnBevere.com. Order a book not just for you, but for your friends. Then go to Appendix A in the back of the book and scan the QR code, and it will bring you to all 42 videos. Hey, let your transformation journey begin now!